Dale Hollow's Guide to the best Smallmouth fishing in the World

Fishing Report

2014 Smalljaw Members Tournament Results

Engraved Plaques

Engraved Plaques

Its finally here, new engraved plaques to catch that trophy memory at a much better price than a fish or deer mount. No longer will you have to figure out or argue with the better half where your are going to hang your trophy catch. Fast tourn around time, 5 to 7 days vs 6 months to a year. Sizes are from 5x7 to 12x15. Just send a picture and you are on your way. Get yours today, check out sizes and price in the Smalljaw Tackle Shop!

Bell and Robertson win Smalljaw event with quality limit of unders

CELINA-Mark Bell (thebassman30) and John Robertson (catchemall) used consistency to win this year's Annual Smalljaw.com Members Tournament held here at Horse Creek Dock last week.
The duo weighed in a limit of quality smallmouth under 16 inches long each day to total 7.46 pounds and win $760 for first place.
Not far behind were Don Lowe (bobberk) and his partner Johnny Arnold with seven pounds even made up of four unders. They came in just shy of the championship and won $380.
Third place was taken by Joe Haunert (joeh) and Matt Brisben (mbris) thanks in part to Sunday's big fish--a smallmouth over 21 inches long tipping the scales at a healthy 4.60 pounds.
The big fish worth $190 paired with a single under on Saturday gave them a total 6.01 pounds and helped net them $228 for third.
The fourth and final paid position was claimed by Randy Blackwell (randyblackwell) and Joey Dyer (jdd4871). They carried three unders to the scales weighing 4.95 pounds to pocket $152.
Other winners included Oscar Torbett (oscar) and Matt Jenkins (jenko157) with a 2.14-pound under to win $190 for the Saturday big smallmouth; Bill Haunert (bhaunert) and Nick Haunert (abes2004) with their first day big green fish weighing 4.83 pounds to win $190; and Adam (adammilitana) and Gary Militana (garymilitana) with their second day big green fish worth $190 weighing 5.34 pounds.
Word at the weigh-in was the majority of the field caught good numbers of quality smallmouth throughout the two-day event, including several upper-end slot fish. Double-digit catches were common with some over-20 days being reported.
Fish were caught with a multitude of lures, including the float-n-fly, jigs, tailspinners, swimbaits, and more. Horse Creek thanked those in attendance for their continued patronage and said they were already looking forward to this year's Elite Tournament weekend.

Tyler Reed is the social media and B.A.S.S. Nation editor for B.A.S.S. Keep up with B.A.S.S. on Facebook and Twitter.
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

By Tyler Reed
SEP 20, 2013
CASCO, Maine — Paul Mueller really didn’t want to fish for largemouth on Maine’s Sebago Lake. It’s not his strength. He’s much better at targeting smallmouth.
But largemouth paid off for Mueller all week, and his 13-1 sack on Day 3 of the B.A.S.S. Nation Eastern Divisional was more than enough for him to earn the victory.

“I really wanted to get to nationals,” Mueller said, referring to the 2013 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship. “But winning is icing on the cake.”
Mueller and eight others earned berths in the championship by being the top competitor on their state team. The nine anglers will journey to Russellville, Ark., to compete on Lake Dardanelle, Oct. 24-26, against their peers from other B.A.S.S. Nation chapters.

One angler from each division will earn a qualification in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic.
“It would be life-changing to go to the Classic,” said Mueller. “I’ve been watching The Bassmasters on TV since I was a little kid. It’s what got me into fishing.”
Mueller was fishing his fifth divisional this week, and it’s his first time qualifying for the championship. He fished his first at the young age of 19. He’s now 29. “This has been 10 years in the making,” he said.
Mueller kept finding largemouth — and ones of good size, too — and the smallmouth bite never worked out for him. He caught three smallies over the three days and culled one of them. He was one of only two anglers to get a limit all three competition days. (Randy Phillips of Massachusetts was the other.)

“I only got six or seven bites a day,” said Mueller. “I like tournaments like this. I always do well in grind tournaments.”
The largemouth he found were shallow, he said, because of the full moon. He caught a 5 1/4-pound fish at 8:30 a.m. today in Turtle Cove, when he was just about to leave the area. He stuck around for another hour but didn’t get any more bites. The bass was looking for crawfish right where the rock transitioned to grass.
He left the area and found the rest of his fish near a bridge on the southern end of the lake. These fish were holding in shallow water — 1/2 to 2 feet — in grass, enjoying a plethora of bluegill and perch.

His big fish came on a Punisher SmallJaw Shaky Jig (brown) with a Rein’s Ring Craw trailer (green pumpkin/blue). He caught a big largemouth on Day 1 with the same jig and a Rein’s Fat Rock Vibe Shad. He fished the jig using a Dobyns Champion Extreme DX703SF rod, 10-pound Gamma Torque braid and 8-pound fluorocarbon leader.
A watermelon colored Yamamoto Senko tricked his other fish.

He would Texas rig it in grassy areas and wacky rig it in places with less vegetation. He fished the Senko with a Dobyns Champion 704SF, 15-pound Gamma Torque braid and 10-pound fluorocarbon leader.
“It means everything to win this,” said Mueller. “I have to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There’s no way I did this on my own.”
Mueller is looking forward to Dardanelle next month. “I’ve never fished it before, but I will before the cut-off period,” he said. “We should see some big weights there.”

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-Another epic smallmouth-only tournament was held here at Horse Creek Resort on December 3-4 and this year those on hand witnessed a history-making weigh-in with heavy weights, big numbers, and an over-$8,000 purse from an 81-boat field, along with an occurrence that has only happened one other time on Dale Hollow Lake.

The champions of the 29th Annual Horse Creek-Billy Westmoreland Memorial Smallmouth Invitational, Robert Brownlee and Scott Brummett of Nashville, carried a 4-fish limit to the scales on Saturday--a feat accomplished only one other time back in 2006 by tournament winners Matt Myers and Kelly Ricker.
Brownlee and Brummett zeroed on Sunday, but their pair under 16 inches and twin four-pound 21-inchers tipping the scales at 12.21 pounds the first day was enough to secure the win and the $2,736 first-place purse.

Coming in a close second were Darrell Foster and Tim Hayden of Bristol. They had their two 'unders' the first day and opened eyes on Sunday with a three-fish bag weighing in at over eight pounds, 5.16 pounds of which came from the second-day big fish that netted them an additional $810.
Their two-day total of 12.03 pounds handed them the runner-up spot and the second-place money worth $1,520.
Gary Saunders and Greg Engle of Gallipolis,

OH notched third place on the final board thanks in part to the heaviest smallmouth of the tournament--a 5.25-pound brute that won them the first-day big fish award worth $810.
It, paired with two under 16 inches Saturday, and another pair of 'unders' at the final weigh-in brought their total to 11.89 pounds allowing them to pocket $912 as the second runner-up.

Fourth place and $608 was snatched up by the team of Matt Alliston from Louisville, KY and Jason Ramsey from Speedway, IN. Despite only having two small fish weighing in at 3.34 pounds on Saturday, the duo finished in the money after catching an 'over' weighing 3.91 pounds and two more just shy of 16 inches the last day to total 10.69 pounds.

The final paid position was claimed by Ellis Bevill of Chattanooga and Jamie Lawson of Jacksboro. They sat in third place on day one with a three-fish sack weighing 7.64 pounds (4.90-lb. 'over'), but slid down the final leaderboard to fifth after blanking on Sunday. Fortunately, the weight was enough to net them $304 for finishing in the top five.

Don Lowe and Johnny Arnold of Bristol finished just out of the money in sixth place with a heavy foursome of 'unders' weighing 7.59 pounds, and the following made up the rest of the top 10:
•

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Another angler was recognized for his efforts after final weigh-in and given some Billy Westmoreland memorabilia despite not making the top 10.
Nine-year-old Zeke Gaffney of Crab Orchard, KY, was the youngest angler to compete in this year's event and he carried three fish under 16 inches long to the scales he caught while fishing with his father Josh--a feat drawing the additional honor.

Final numbers showed over 150 smallmouth weighed adding up to a total of over 250 pounds, with a total of seven big fish over 21 inches long in the two-day tournament, evidence of the continued reign of the lake as the "Smallmouth Capital of the World."
The tournament is unique and only fished by a select group, because participants must reside at least 100 miles from Horse Creek and the event is 'invitation-only' with a closed list.
Next year's tournament will mark the 30th anniversary of the event founded by Westmoreland and Horse Creek owner Jack Huddleston, and it will honor the 10th anniversary of the death of the smallmouth legend.
Horse Creek offered their thanks to all participants, helpers, and supporters of the 2011 tournament affectionally known to its patrons as "The Billy."
For more about Horse Creek, visit them online at www.horsecreek-resort.com.

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The 2011 Smalljaw Night Tournament champions were crowned at Horse Creek Resort Saturday night after two nights of fishing and Ellis (Pillroller) Bevil & Jamie (Tnbronzeback) Lawson came out on top winning by less than a half-pound.
They held off second-place finishers Pate (Plang) Langley and Bill (Bhaunert) Haunert by the slim margin to win a total of $680.
Pillroller and Tn's total of 8.79 pounds handed them the first-place purse worth $525, but they also took home additional cash over the weekend.
Their bag was made up of two fish under 16 inches long--one of which tipped the scales at 2.11 pounds netting them $50 for the first-night 'big under,' and a 4.07-pound 21-incher the first night giving them half the 'big fish' award worth $105, but their small under the second night made all the difference allowing them to hold on to the win.
Continued

Southern Woods and Waters & Keith Palmiero

Smalljaw Night Crews

Fished Sunday night with my son Jonathan, nephew Hank, and good friend Easmallie! We caught 28 smallmouth. It was Hank's first trip with me, first trip to Dale Hollow, and first trip for lake smallies. His first fish of the night was a 21-1/4" over!! Needless to say he is definately "Hooked on the Thump" as Bris says!! We had several fish over 18", 4 over 20", and Hank's one over 21". The highlight of the night was seeing Hank's face when he caught his monster as he called it.LOL I now hav another fishin buddy!!!
Fish were caught on rocky banks in about 15-20 ft of water with the channel close by on a deerhair jig that i tie myself which proves that they will hit anything!LOL

Night Shift End of July

Back after them this weekend, after taking a couple weeks off. Still same ole grid, no generation yet, lake level stiil above summer pool and the water temps in the low 90's.
Bite seems to have changed a little, fish are not everywhere. They are starting to stack up a little in certain places. Friday night was different from Saturday night, might be on flats one night and drops the next. Fish are bitting my jig now in the 15' to 25' range depending on what type of structure I am fishing. Landed 9 on Friday night and a doz on Saturday night, with both nights producing low quanity but great quality. Did not have a fish this past weekend under 18" and managed one over 21", lots of fish in the 19" to 20.5" having me pull out the golden rule several times.

Wow!!!! What a mount. This is a re-paint of Billy Westmorelands 10 lber he caught done by none other that Butch with Butch's Taxidermy. This was the mount at the Dale Hollow One Stop we have all been seeing for years when we have gone in there to shop for baits. You have out done yourself Butch. Fine job, we are honered to have you as a part of our Smalljaw community. Ar To look at some of Butch's great Smallmouth work click on the link to the left on Butch's Taxidermy. I have added some more pictures of his latest work.

Night Bite (First Timer)

Monday night was my first foray into several things such as night time fishing for small mouth, casting a spinning reel with artificial lures, and in general just getting on the water with a guide for the first time at night. Greg from Dusk to Dawn guide service picked Josh and I up at Willow Grove at 8pm. Fished several points, mostly between fifteen and twenty foot with decent sucess. We put about ten fish in the boat, but the rain made us call it quits early. I probably had the longest fish at almost 22 inches.
We had a great time and I feel like ive got a decent start for the rest of my two weeks on vacation for night fishing. Kudos to Greg for helping us get the feel for hair jigs, and fishing at night in general. I just want to say thanks to Greg for making the transition to night fishing less painful, I really dont know what more I could have asked of a guide. He was very personable, extremely knowledgable,and seemed to be very eager to help a novice like myself. Looking forward to my next lesson on The Dale.

Tom Travels to Minnesota

Spent last week fishing Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota with Gary Kubal , Bobby Bare and Butch Obert. This lake is big (35 miles across!), about 100 miles north of Minneapolis and loaded with smallmouth. The folks up there fish for Walleye mostly and consider smallmouths a trash fish. Crazy Yankees! We had a blast catching dozens of 2.5 to 3 lbers as well as a bunch in the 3 to 4 lb range. My biggest fish was right at 5 lbs. The lake was about 65 degrees and the fish seemed to be in pre-spawn mode. Most were mean, hard fighting males while the bigger fish were fat girls loaded with eggs. The shaky head with a 4-5 inch Senko worm caught most of the fish. Color didn't seem to matter-these fish were hungry. The bigger fish were caught on the Peanut head with an avocado chunk (thanks Andrew!) We also got a few on top water and tubes. All in all a fabulous trip and we're already planning a trip for next year. We're thinking late June or early July might be a little better with the fish in post spawn.

No Rookie

This is my first post on Smalljaw. My son Adam is an active member, and I have been following this forum for that reason for several years. I have also had the pleasure of meeting many of you at the Elite tournaments with Adam. The reason I decided to post now after so long was to be able to give some reports from time to time when Adam is not able to fish. When I told him that I might fish the Saturday night tournament with his mother this past weekend, there was a dead silence. Then after a long pause, he said he would have to make a game plan and that he would call me back. When he returned the call, he had a series of ten areas that we have caught overs before. Most of them were rocky points because apparently from what he heard they weren't on flats. He said if I kept it simple and stuck with a hair jig he ties he thought I would have about a 50% chance of catching an over. To me those were good enough odds to enter, so I convinced my substitute fishing partner, my wife of 36 years, Karen to come along and off we went to buy her a fishing license. However, on the boat she refused to fish. After extensive negotiations she did agree to net my fish if she was not on the phone or searching the internet on her smart phone. Lucky for me she was off the phone when I caught my over. We had a catch of nine fish overall with an under measuring 13.5 inches and an over at 21.5. We came in 4th with a combined weight of 4.84. As you can see from the picture, we are still working on her photography skills at night. It was a great evening overall, and I look forward to a few more tournaments with my new fishing partner until Adam gets off his ICU rotation.

Fished the lower end last night with my brother which was a long over due trip for the two of us. Caught a couple before dark on a swimbait and football jig. Then caught a dozen or so more after dark. I did nail one nice 21 3/4" bruiser but the rest were nice slot fish and unders. I swear those smaller slot fish fight harder than the big ones. The smaller fish were really acrobatic last night as well. We had a couple jump about 4 feet out of the water. We caught most of our fish on jigs but we did get two small ones on a spinnerbait. We switched jig types (hair jigs, peanut, standard rubber) all night and got bit on all of them. I caught more on the hair jig though. We pretty much stayed on the main lake all night and the bite seemed to get better for us after midnight. The depth we got bites varied between 10-25ft. We usually kept the boat in 25-40.

Fished Saturday and Sunday night with my buddy Geoff (Basskicker). We ended up with 27 fish for the two nights with 2 overs and a nice largemouth. Most fish were caught on a shaky head baby brush hog or super hog. Also, caught a couple decent ones on a spinnerbait. Grass and channel points seemed to be the pattern. It was nice to give the night time bite a try.

Ted

Smalljaw Respect

Got to head out for some night time action this past weekend. I had been off the water for about a month (graduation / wedding / honeymoon) and was really looking forward to what will be my last trip before my intern year starts this week. Fortunately, the bite did not disappoint, and I got to share the boat with some really great company. The first night I fished was with my dad on Thursday. We fished the tournament out of Dale Hollow Marina (7pm-11pm) and caught 16, but only had two unders to take to the scales. Brandon and Steve joined me Friday night from 7pm-1am. We had 21 for the night with a really good over that was almost exactly the length of the golden rule before dark. We also had a couple incidental walleyes which Brandon and Steve said would be a crime to throw back...lol. I always enjoy sharing the boat with those two. Saturday night my dad and I fished the tournament out of Starpoint (7pm-1am). We ended up placing 2nd with an over/under pair that went 5.89lbs. The 21.5" over was caught in the final hour which made for a really exciting ride back to the scales with my dad. We fished a couple spots after the tournament to finish the night with 20 (13 during the tournament and 7 after). I was able to stay out Sunday night and fish with my good friend Mark. We didn't get started until late but fished to sunrise (11pm-5am) catching 16 for the night. The quality of fish this weekend was just remarkable with the majority of fish measuring between 18-20 inches. As far as the report goes...there are a couple patterns that were pretty strong. The first was a really good hair jig bite on main lake points. The bite was coming in 15-20 feet with the boat generally in 30-35 feet. There was also a really good spinnerbait bite on open water humps and flats in 10-20 feet of water. We caught fish on a couple other techniques as well when they were feeding more aggressively. I think thats it for me for the month of July as my first rotation is in the ICU. Hopefully I will be back out in August.

Smalljaw Elite Tourney Winners

03-12 & 13-2011

What a weekend! I can’t say enough about the smalljaw family! This was a fantastic time with some of the greatest people I have ever met. The food was unbelievable, and I already can’t wait for next year. If none of you have ever participated in this event, you really need to give it a shot! It is the best weekend of the entire year.
I would like to thank Thomas and Mitch at Horse Creek for putting up the money for this great event. I also would like to thank Steve Niemoeller, the owner of Steel Shad Lures (www.steelshad.com) for stepping up and giving us $100 for big green fish. Also, Jerry York (Pork) stepped up and added another $100 for big green fish. This gave us $100 each day for big fish. Thanks guys, without people like you, none of this would be possible. Continued

Wow!!!! What a mount. This is Bill Haurnert and his Big Fish Mount he won from Butch's Taxidermy. What attention to detail. Congrats Bill. Ar

Smalljaw Tourney Winners

12-12-2010

Another great year has passed, and as usual another great Smalljaw tx. The 4th anual smalljaw tx was a huge success and we owe it all to you, the members, for making it that way!
Day one went well with overcast skies, but warmer than normal temps. It was in the mid 50's most of the day, with the wind picking up in the afternoon from the aproaching cold front. One of the biggest challenges that the teams faced was that most of the lake was in full Turn Over. Still, there were a lot of great fish brought to the scales with three over 21 being brought in. Bill Haunert's giant 5.5# beauty was the largest of the three and of the tourney.
Day one's largest green fish was caught by Jamie Lawson and weighed in at 5.17#'s.
The largest under was brought to the scales by team Noodle and Ben and weighed in at 2.15#'s Day two brought even greater challenges with the dropping temps throughout the night and the sleet and snow that came with it. Decks of boats became very slippery and were a safety consern to some. The temps were very cold and in the low 20's. These are tough conditions, but with this group of anglers, most went out! No overs were brought in this day but plenty of unders and some good green fish.
Day 2 big smallmouth, big green fish and big under went all to team Renneisen and Brown! The big green was 3.69# and the smally weighed in at 2.24#. Congrats guys!!
First place winners were team Haunert and Haunert with 7.76# and the big smallmouth of the tx!!
Second place winners were team Bell and Robertson with 3 good unders and an over coming in at 7.73#.
Third place winners were team Renneisen and Brown with 4 unders at 7.07#.
Forth place winners were team Evertt and Darby with an over and 2 good unders that came in at 6.92#.
Fifth place was taken by team Arms and Arms with 4 good unders that came in at 6.5#

All in all the tourney was a great success and I already can't wait for next year.
Thanks to all the helped out and to all our sponcers who donated prizes!
Big thanks to Greg Brisendine, Thomas Weaver, Brandon Cross, Tom Weaver, and Greg Pasctel.
And our sponcers: Punisher Lures, Big Hammer Swimbaits, Steelshad, Legal Limit Lures, and Kimberly Clark. Of course it always goes without saying, a BIG THANKS to Horse Creek for thier hospitality and helping out with the tourney. Without them none of it would be possible. Continued